Great Recession & Slow Recovery

The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly

The Good:

• Student explored data on both FRED and World Bank Data

• Student picked relevant variables, explained it correctly

• Cogent international comparisons of the great recession

The Bad:

• Great interactive tools made for poor visualizations (at least default values)

• Time consuming to reproduce - Return to website, download image, etc.

The Ugly:

• Inconsistent style across FRED and World Bank Data

• Very difficult to see much of the text

Introduction

• Created an R package, ecodata, to facilitate visualizing data in undergraduate macroeconomics courses

• Wrapper for the fredr, wbstats, and ggplot2 packages

• Makes it easy to:

  • Download data from the Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRED) and World Bank databases

  • Produce professional-quality data visualizations

  • View descriptions of the data

  • Cite sources

• Do everything with 3-4 lines of code

• Not a substitute for fredr, wbstats, or ggplot2, nor for exploring data and using interactive tools in FRED and World Bank Data

Let’s Try It Out!

Why Scripting Languages?

Why Avoid Scripting Languages?

ECODATA Package

• Gentle learning curve!

• Easy to do easy things

• Use simple reproducible code to analyze macroeconomics principles

Why ECODATA for Principles of Macroeconomics?

• Data visualization is a key skill for everyone

• Early introduction makes subsequent classes easier

• Data is used throughout the economics discipline, it should be used throughout economics curriculum

• Repeated practice throughout undergraduate degree builds mastery

Best Practices for Principles-Level

• Show students worked-out examples - See my vignettes!

• Create prompts that require only 1-2 lines of code to answer the question

• Make economics real: Compare theoretical predictions with recent data

• Be mindful of opportunity costs - Do more data analysis means doing less of something else in the class

  • I plan on 3 or 4 short assignments for the semester

Example

1. Download data for the U.S. unemployment rate, California unemployment rate, and Wisconsin unemployment rate from FRED, and filter the data to only include the years 2006-2016.

2. Plot the U.S. unemployment rate from 2006-2016. Describe the behavior of the unemployment rate before, during, and years after the recession. Is the situation back to normal at the end of the recession? What do you notice about economic recoveries?

3. Plot the U.S. unemployment rate along with Wisconin’s and California’s unemployment rate. What do you notice about the differences in the unemployment rates between these states?

Example - #1: Download Data

data_sources <- c(
  "https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/UNRATE",
  "https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/WIUR",
  "https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CAUR"
)

variable_names <- c("U.S. Unemployment Rate", "Wisconsin Unemployment Rate", "California Unemployment Rate")

# Download the data
udata <- get_ecodata(data_sources, variable_names)

# Filter for only 2006-2013
udata <- udata |>
  filter(Date >= "2006-01-01", Date <= "2018-12-31")

Example - #2: U.S. Unemployment Rate

ggplot_ecodata_ts(udata, 
                  variables = "U.S. Unemployment Rate",
                  title = "U.S. Unemployment Rate",
                  plot.recessions = TRUE)

Example - #3: Plot U.S., Wisconsin, and California Unemployment Rates

ggplot_ecodata_ts(udata, title = "Unemployment Rates", plot.recessions = TRUE)

Instructional Vignettes

• Supply and Demand for Housing

  • Data on construction prices, new house prices, and housing starts.

  • Does data match a supply and demand model prediction?

• Exchange Rates and Interest Rates

  • Data on exchange rates and interest rates interest rates in U.K. and U.S.

  • Does data matches predictions from a supply and demand model for currencies?

• Unemployment and Recessions

  • State and national data on unemployment and during the 2008-2009 recession

What Are Your Ideas?

• You have or envision a short low-stakes assignment where students visualize macroeconomic data?

• Answer these questions about one such assignment:

  1. What is the macroeconomics concept or theory that students apply?

  2. What variables do the students need?

  3. What will the students discover?

• Share your ideas! Email: jmurray@uwlax.edu

• What me to create instructional vignette around your idea? Let me know!

Thank you!